Lines of Action

Lines of Action is an abstract strategy board game invented by Claude Soucie.

Start position and game object

The game is played on 8x8 square board with black and white pieces. The following image shows the start position:

The object of the game is to bring all of one's pieces together into a contiguous body. It means that all pieces of the same colour must be connected together in any direction - horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

How to move pieces

Black player starts the game. The player can move any piece horizontally, vertically or diagonally exactly as many spaces as there are pieces (of any colour) on the line in which it is moving. The next picture shows a black piece moving 2 spaces vertically because there were 2 pieces in this direction - C1 and C8:

A piece can also jump over another piece(s) of the same colour but cannot jump over an opponent's piece. The following picture displays a position where the black E8 piece can jump to the B5 square but the white A6 piece cannot jump to the D6 square:

How to capture opponent's pieces

A player can move a piece to a square which is occupied by an opponent's piece, and remove it from the board. The next image shows the first black's move from C1 to A3, capturing the white piece:

How to finish the game

The game ends if all non-captured pieces of one player form a connected structure. This player wins the game. It can be either the player making the winning move (by connecting the last separated piece with the rest of his/her connected ones) or the opponent (if the player accidentally captures the last separated opponent's piece and the rest of them are already connected together). It also means that the player with only one remaining piece wins the game because the single piece is connected with itself. The following picture displays an example of winning position (black is the winner):

Other important rules

If a player's move causes both black and white pieces to form connected structures simultaneously, the game is a draw.